This first chat room discussion seemed to really get people fired up. This thing went on for years before Alan Wheeler shut it down, saying it had gotten off topic. This despite the fact that the guy had made over 50 posts on it himself. Most of which didn’t pertain in any way to the original topic.
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rhonda / 11-02-2005 10:36Unfortunate turn!
Okay.. Hubby & I have been researching boats, reading about other cruisers and so forth.. Narrowing things down etc.. well I don't know if any of you have been reading bumfuzzles logs.. but a new post has been added..and I must say it is something that I think everybody should read.
It is very unfortunate what has happend to this couple.
This comes across as very disturbing, the fact that someone wants to claim it is a "act of god" ha! okay anyway, I do not know Pat & allie I am only an avid reader of their logs, but I must thank them for helping me decide where NOT to purchase a boat from.
Here is the link that I think all of you should see.. I am sure many of you will have comments and come to your own conclusions, and I would love to hear your thoughts on it.
Here is the link ~
click on logs and then go to feb 2005 scroll down and click on the link that says " Blistering and Delamination Correspondence"
Euro Cruiser / 12-02-2005 06:33
I second Rhonda's referral...
...to the Bumfuzzle logs, tho' perhaps not for the reasons she gives. Here are SOME of the benefits of reading them IMO...
1. Youth (or is it ignorance?) can truly be wasted on the young. To watch this twenty-something couple wade across the Pacific with neither much knowledge or interest in the cultures or histories of the island nations they are visiting is actually painful. (Talk about the ugly American and his/her tendency to see the world thru the USA's provincial lens...). It's also like listening to fingernails on the chalkboard to hear them (almost always, Patrick) whine about their boat's performance (they don't know how to sail to windward, or how to strike their Screecher) or the lack of knowledge islanders have at splicing double-braid line (that's THEIR line on THEIR boat that THEY are clueless to splice...).
2. P&A should be congratulated (and I have done so via email) for the effort they've put into capturing their monthly expenses and reporting them regularly. This is always a hot topic among would-be cruising sailors. Of course, P&A's tallies are at least as unique (and therefore unrepresentative) as the next crew's will be, because they have so little seamanship, knowledge or skill to apply to their circumstances. Still...'A' for effort.
3. Probably mostly due to extreme ignorance, they bought a boat based on it being represented as a 'go anywhere' choice, but also at a really good price. This is surely a recipe for disappointment. And it was a multihull, of all things - where the quality of the engineering and the build quality are especially important due to the lighter weight structures vs. increased stresses - yet it was sold at a cheaper than normal price. Uh-huh... Now the builder refuses to stand behind the work he allegedly did poorly (in the view of an experienced Kiwi builder who is doing the repairs). Oh, I believe the boat was built in a substandard fashion...but is it a surprise that a small boat builder in South Africa, with limited resources and an escalating Rand, is going to offer tens of thousands of U.S. dollars to help fix second owners half a world away? Virtue and The Golden Rule notwithstanding, we as buyers just have to be more savvy than that.
4. For a culinary guide to burgers and pizza, thru-out the South Pacific, bumfuzzle.com is the place. To learn something about the people and their culture, go almost anywhere else...
Jack
sv_makai / 12-02-2005 07:48
Doing it
All people make choices, some good and some bad. But the difference is they made a choice to change their lives and are living the way they want. Not the way someone else thinks they should. If that was the case they probably be still working a 9-5 and dreaming.
We are there now, learning, and enjoying it the way we want as well!
I am off my soapbox......
rhonda / 12-02-2005 08:33
ahhh come on Jack you have to feel a little compassion towards this couple... "what happend to all cruisers stick together?" regaurdless of experience? Besides if you don't get out there and do it how are you ever going to learn.. I say Kudo's to Ali & Pat, for trying..
so what if they like too enjoy a pizza, and hamburgers.. is that really such a bad thing?
get off that high horse of yours! Better yet ~ go have a big fat cheeseburger on me! lol J/k
if i did not change your mind I can assure one thing.. .I made you smile
enjoy europe...
delmarrey / 12-02-2005 10:18
I would mostly have to agree with Eurocruiser's statements. There IS a price to pay for ignorance. And it looks like "the devil has had his way" with them, as the old seaman would say.
They are young and have a lot of time ahead of them to make up the losses. But they've also gained much experience without injury, which makes them fortunate. It looks like the tide is in their favor. To be able to afford a Cat at their age and travel too is a lot better then I'm doing. Who's their sponsor?
I can't really feel sorry for anyone who is doing so well. It's all relative...... _/)
Alan Wheeler / 12-02-2005 11:19
I feel their pain, but also have to agree with Euro cruiser on the "cheap second hand boat part". I would have to be asking questions of the guy that had it before them. Lightning is a possible cause and what if a strike was something that happend to the previouse owner.
I have a saying, Experiance is a cruel taskmaster, she gives you the exam first and the lesson afterwards.
Euro Cruiser / 12-02-2005 15:24
Did I miss something?
Did I criticize them for launching off on a new adventure, or deciding - what, during a pizza lunch? - to sail around the world? No criticism on that decision from me, and more power to them...but it comes at a price.
What a waste to see the world thru a fast food lens and have so little desire to understand the cultures thru which they march. The courage to go, the stamina to 'stay gone'...but sitting in the concert hall and finding themselves tone-deaf.
BTW we had the air sucked out of us when our new Pacific Seacraft, after 3 months, offered its gelcoat to us in long streamers, with a resin-starved lay-up on display behind it and a builder who could have cared less. I have truly walked in Ali & Pat's shoes. I also went after the builder in the same way they are choosing to do, but first on the sly and with the threat hanging over their heads prior to an Annapolis Boat Show - which is the only thing that motivated PS to help address the issue. As I stated above, I applaud them for hanging the dirty laundry out to dry - it serves as a public service. But are their circumstances amplified by their ignorance? Do they have unrealistic expectations re: a builder that, after all, didn't sell them a boat? I'd say so.
Jack
rhonda / 12-02-2005 15:51
apparently I pushed the wrong buttons with you jack.. First off.. I apologize if you were offended in any way.. I was only trying ad a little humor and lighten things up a bit.. I assumed the light heartedness would come across that way in my most recent post, unfortunatly not..
sorry you got so worked up over something meant to be humorous.
CSY Man / 12-02-2005 17:58
Pizza, burgers and crappy cats..?
Surprise surprise.: D
Yeah, have not read the whole tale, so not commenting on their misfortune, but tend to se things throug Jack lenses:
Life was nevr supposed to be easy and convenitent, regardless of what Cruising World and the glossy ads tell ya:
Buy a bargain boat, don't do yer home work and just set off to find the rose-garden?
As we say in the pilot community: If flying was that easy, the Flight Attendants would be doing it:
(They only come to the cockpit to serve us meals and coffe and they find us up there telling jokes while the auto-pilot is tracking the airways and life is sweet, decent paycehck and all...The best of times perhaps, but reality can be quite different when stuff hits the fan, and stuff does, on a regular basis, also hard work getting there in one piece, all of it just like in full time crusing.)
At any rate, Mr. Euro Cruiser:
Surprised to see ya had problems with a brand new Pacific Seacraft?
Them boats have a stellar reputation and I also thought customer service and "after sale support" would be just the same...?
One of my buddies here in town is the P.S. dealer / broker and I rent dock space to his boats from time to time. We have swallowed many a beer in the shade, but I have never heard of the kind of problems ya are describing.
PM me if I can be of any help as far as highlighting yer problems to my dealer friend.
rhonda / 12-02-2005 19:00
It sure is nice to see that the cruising community sticks behind there fellow cruisers..
regaurdless of how much experience someone has it would be nice to see that everyone stand behind one another and help in anyway they can.. after all that is how the non experienced cruisers learn or so it should be.
Perhaps, I should have never even started this post..simply because I did not expect to see someone bash them based on lack of experience or how they chose to travel.
Alan Wheeler / 12-02-2005 19:35
I think it was great that you started this thread Rhonda. But you have to remember.....
1: Everyone one has a view and it may/maynot be a shared one., but they are entitled to it.
2: There are always two sides to a story.
3: The rain falls on the good and the bad
4: But, So does the Sun.
I sent Pat and Ali an email and said if they ever bump (not literaly) into my boat on their travels, I would show them how to rope splice. Plus I told them they just have to sail to Fiordland and Stewart Island. They have to respect Weather and Sea to get there, but the reward is breathtaking. I am so disapointed at the number of Sailors that travel an Ocean to get to NZ and yet never see our country.
:cheers:
BC Mike / 12-02-2005 20:40
Blisters
I have not read the bumfuzzel posts but about blisters I have this to say. It is a crime to put an outside in boat in the water with out first puting on a barrier coat. By outside in I mean a boat that was built starting with the gel coat. There is plenty of info on this subject and it is a real pity that many folks chose to ignore the fact that blisters can and will occur, and say it is a waste of money to put on a barrier coat. The good manufacturers of fibreglas materials were advising to barrier coat over twenty years ago. Michael
Alan Wheeler / 12-02-2005 21:31
I am glad Rhonda started this thread. I hope it will open up some very interesting side discussions.
I have no answers to Bummfuzzles dilema, nor to any of the questions I have written below. I just want to bring up some interesting discussion on the matter and hope we get to read some interesting replies and comments.
So what about the guy that sold the boat to Pat and Ali. What responsibility does he have in the situation. Comments anyone?!?
From what I have read, I see no comments from Bumfuzzle about trying to contact the previouse owner and ask some in depth questions on the boats short history.
I am a little suspicouse that the guy sold the boat cheap and so soon. Did he have inklings or just not like sailing or????
Should a builder be held responsable for a situation like this, when it is a second hand boat. I could understand if it was the original purchaser, then there would need to be some warranty, although I guess it depends on initial contract between the two parties. One point was made by the NZ repair guy, that the particular coating system was discontinued with many years ago, because of such problems. But is the use of it a crime on the behalf of the builder? The industry I am in has a similar problem. We get flooded with product built in places like China. Of course, many think just becasue it is built in such countries, that the product is automaitcaly cheap and nasty. But the product is built cheap to BE cheap. Comments anyone?!?
:cheers:
Jentine / 13-02-2005 05:25
Regardless of who the owner of a boat is, the builder is responsible for the vessel he made. If the boat was built with substandard materials and workmanship, I believe the builder should be held responsible until he is out of business or has rectified the problem.
Jim
Euro Cruiser / 13-02-2005 06:29
Dont' miss the forest while discussing a tree...
For context, I'd like to mention that my comments are motivated, almost not at all by the thread that covers correspondence between BUMFUZZLE and the Charter Cat builder. I read that whole thread full of emails and don't find BUMFUZZLE's construction issues nor the builder's responses to be terribly unusual nor surprising. Sobering, disappointing...but not surprising. I do sympathize with the owners, as I mentioned above, altho' my sympathy would be more unqualified if they had a more direct hand in dealing with the repairs themselves. Their angst has been emotional and financial, but it surely hasn't involved much sweat equity or hard labor.
Rhonda raises an interesting point...in fact, has raised it several times. What allegiance and support do I owe BUMFUZZLE's crew? After all, we're both actively cruising our boats and, for that reason, sharing many similar challenges despite being in different hemispheres. To help Rhonda and perhaps others understand the context of my remarks, please understand that most of what motivates me to comment as I do are the BUMFUZZLE logs as a whole. Perhaps because it's been a slow, cold winter, I've read every word published by them and it's been a pretty disappointing read. In truth, Rhonda, I expect a lot more of fellow cruisers than what I've at least read from BUMFUZZLE's logs. I expect a curiosity and a sensitivity to local cultures & history. I expect cruisers, far more than cruise ship passengers for example, to leave an impression of my country and my countrymen that demonstrates at least some amount of cultural literacy & sensitivity. I think cruising sailors can have a huge impact on the common view held of our country by others, something that I personally consider far more important today than I did only a few years ago. (It is very easy for me to imagine, based on those logs, the locals thinking to themselves: 'There go more typical Americans; spoiled, rich and clueless).
And yes, I'll admit that I expect a level of personal investment - in acquiring knowledge and skills - by cruising folks, so that one crew doesn't potentially visit too much of a problem on the rest of the fleet. I see little evidence of any of these things in the BUMFUZZLE logs; mostly, I see a lot of whining every time adversity arrives. For those of you who haven't read the logs - and to hold me accountable for my own reaction - dip into them and see what you think. See if you think you'd end up in Columbia when you were sailing from Panama to the Galapagos, given their circumstances. Ask yourself if you would have tied a bowline in the end of the new halyard when you needed to use it, rather than moaning about some islander not knowing how to splice in a snap shackle.
Perhaps I should feel more compassion; perhaps that's a failing on my part. Mostly what I feel is a lack of respect...and I find it hard to muster a lot of sympathy for essentially self-inflicted wounds, of which BUMFUZZLE's build issues are only one.
Jack
GordMay / 13-02-2005 06:55
While I have NOT read “Bumfuzzle’s” logs, in their entirety (finding them banal, I’ve merely cherry picked), I find that Pat and Ali appear to be a rather “shallow” couple; ill.-prepared (in nearly every way, except financially) for the adventure they’ve undertaken.
Notwithstanding my low opinion of them as cruisers, I do sympathize with them - much as I would for any other helpless creature (apparently with more money than brains).
I have read their correspondence, which does not convincingly present their case. While a manufacturer should be held responsible for the initial quality of their product - such liability should not be unlimited, forever, and under all circumstances.
The manufacturer’s expressed opinions seem (at least) as convincing, as the Schulte’s.
I suspect that they (Shultes) did NOT do their “due diligence”, beyond the hiring of a competent surveyor.
Ie: It is usual to ask the seller to sign a “disclosure”, which describes known significant faults and damage.
FWIW,
Gord
Strygaldwir / 13-02-2005 07:40